"Star Transmission has been a reliable partner of our German powertrain locations for over 10 years,” said Peter Schabert, head of Powertrain Production and head of the Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim plant. “According to the current planning status and based on our excellent experience with Star Transmission, the preferred option for providing the additionally required assembly capacities in a flexible manner is to expand the activities there,” added Schabert, but he reaffirmed that Stuttgart would remain the heart of transmission production for Mercedes-Benz Cars.
Star Transmission currently has a facility at Cugir that makes components for current Mercedes-Benz car engines and transmissions, as well as older generations of transmissions for the spare parts business. Daimler said that production of an existing 5-speed automatic transmission will begin at the new Sebes location from the middle of this year until it is discontinued. Starting in 2014, the current generation of front dual clutch transmissions will then be assembled there. Following that, in 2016, Daimler plans to make a new generation of automatic transmissions, with full production at Stuttgart and assembly at Sebes. The plans are subject to the support of the Romanian government for the expansion of the production capacities.
Sebes will be supplied from Stuttgart-Hedelfingen, the transmission facility at Untertürkheim, which Daimler said would ensure long-term capacity utilisation of transmission production at the Stuttgart-Hedelfingen site.
Logistics contracts for the transport of components are yet to be announced.
